Page:U.S. Department of the Interior Annual Report 1879.djvu/40

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Further details as to the settlement of these accounts and the difficulties under which they were made are given in the Auditor’s report.

From the statement of the engineer it appears that many tunnels on this road should be improved by masonry lining instead of timber; that track and road-bed are in good condition; and that many bridges and much of the trestle work need renewing and improving.

The Auditor highly commends the hospital of the company at Sacramento, and the service and condition of the great snow gallery on the Sierra Nevada Mountains extending over 28 miles.

The equipment of the road is in good condition. The remarks of the Auditor regarding second-class sleeping-cars, ferry service of the company between Oakland and San Francisco, the filling up of a portion of the long wharf at Oakland, and the new mammoth train transfer steamer “Solano,” the sleeping and parlor car business, and increase of speed are also interesting and worthy of consideration.

Particular attention is invited to the fact that the total amount of the 5 per cent. of the net earnings, as ascertained by the Auditor, from November 6, 1869, to December 31, 1878, is $1,978,688.38, or $745,391.86 in excess of the company’s statement; also to the fact, quite as important, that the money is all in the Treasury of the United States.

The Kansas Pacific Railway Company have continued to make reports as called for.